Lenovo ThinkPad L R/SL :: SL500 / Can't Boot From Recovery CD
Aug 30, 2013
I have a Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 about 5 years old. It runs Windows Vista. I need to re-install the operating system as virus infection messed up the whole system. Anti virus software (Norton) cleaned it all up but Windows Update configuration still does not work properly. I purchased (because out of guarantee) Recovery disks from Lenovo about 12 months ago. I have now decided to use them to re-install the operating system. (I was resisting because of data back up issues but that is resolved now). These are proper Lenovo, paid for recovery disks. The instructions that came with the disks said to first change the BIOS options for booting to make the CD drive the 1st priority drive, which I did. However, the machine still insists on booting from the Hard Drive. I re-checked BIOS and the instruction for CD drive as priority boot is still there. Reading past posts on this forum I tried the strategy of pressing F12 when first booting up and got an option for using the CD as a temporary boot drive but apart from a different logo screen appearing, it just hung and would not take me into the recovery process.
View 1 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Jan 1, 2014
I've recently installed Windows 8 on an SL500 Lenovo ThinkPad. One of the three messages in Action Center is a problem with the hotkey utility. Lenovo's Support page recommended installing gevu65ww.exe. The current version is 4.22.1000. After this is installed, I click on "finish" and get the notice that "this program does not support this system. The volume/mute buttons next to the keyboard have not worked since upgrading to Windows 8. The Windows 8.1 has the same problem.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Sep 16, 2013
So I made a mistake. I've reinstalled the OS on computers dozens of times and never quite had this issue. I have the Lenovo SL510 and tried to reinstall using the dvd drive. I entered bios and changed boot settings so the dvd drive was first and then booted it up but it went straight into windows 7 on the hard drive. I tried again, hitting f12 at startup and specifically selected the DVD drive to boot from and again it would boot directly from the hard drive ignoreing the DVD drive completely. Finally I opened the DVD drive from windows and installed over top of the old OS, planning to delete the old files once the install finished.
The install went fine, everything worked, except I didn't have internet. Turns out that the wireless adapter wasn't being recognized. I opened device manager and it was showing up under "Other Devices" as Network Controller with a yellow exclamation mark. I then proceed to track down and install the wireless drivers after connecting with an ethernet cable. I tried the intel chipset program and it would fail to install the correct driver, I tried the lenovo support program and it failed to install the driver, I manually downloaded and installed the driver and nothing happened. I tried several different wireless drivers and the result was always the same. I was working on the issue for at least 8 hours.
Finally I decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and why not reinstall again. This time I created a bootable USB drive and went through the same process, changed boot order, no result booted from hard drive, pressed f12, selected the USB drive, same result. Finally I installed the new OS image over the existing OS from the USB while the computer was on.
Installing the OS over the older OS was definitely a mistake, but it seems like the core of the problem was that the computer just wouldn't boot from anything other than the hard drive itself I didn't realize the implications that this presented and during the final install of the OS from the USB the computer restarted during installation. Of course.. the computer did not reboot from the USB which meant it simply came up black screen, the OS had already been wiped from the hard drive, but it could not boot from the USB and therefore simply comes up blackscreen.
The first thing I tried to do was reboot into BIOS, wasn't happening. When I attempted to access bios it would simply blackscreen with the power on indefinitely. I obviously tried booting and using f12 several times to try switching back and forth from USB to DVD and so on, but everything just black screened.
So....If the computer couldn't boot from USB or DVD then the only option was to boot from inside the original OS, but doing that caused a massive driver error which I couldn't resolve no matter what I did. And now I'm thinking the computer is completely lost. The only idea I have is to try using a friends computer to install an OS on to the SL510's hard drive and then resintall the hard drive into the Laptop to see if it will boot from it. I've poured over this entire forum and found lots of similar issues but no one seems to be offering any answers or solutions besides an occasional "we're looking into it" message.
View 2 Replies
View Related
Oct 5, 2014
i can't boot on an USB key, the secure boot is desabled and when i press enter to boot on the USB key nothing happen. I had tested with 3 different usb key and 2 different OS. And it work on other laptop i have a lenovo twist... i think its in the BIOS but i had check all options
View 2 Replies
View Related
Apr 26, 2013
My R51 was working perfectly and has been maintained over the 8 years it has been with me. I wanted to upgrade my RAM and downloaded the BIOS update and chipset drivers updates.
After powering down I pulled the old 256MB RAM sets from under the keyboard and bottom of machine. I then inserted the single 2GB RAM into the slot under the keyboard and reassembled it.
Black screen/ no boot
Took out the 2GB replaced the 256MB sets and it worked fine for a few hours as I searched out reasons why the 2GB would not work. 'Suddenly the screen goes black and the system shut down.
It will power up (battery light/ status light green) but screen is black and it will not boot. Fan is running and battery charges. I tried hitting F12 and F8 but nothing.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Dec 24, 2014
I have disabled the secure boot and changed the boot to Legacy Only.It still doesn't work.I have also tried updating my bios to the latest version using the Lenovo Solution Center.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Dec 3, 2014
I am trying to do a clean install on my good, old Thinkpad X230 which came with 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. For some reason, I was not able to create a bootable media from the recovery partition. In any case, I wanted to avoid the recovery partition as I want a basic, non-bloated, and minimal install.
Hence, I downloaded a copy of 64-bit Windows 7 Professional from Microsoft/ digital river website. After performing the checksum, I used Microsoft's USB DVD Download Tool to make a bootable USB on Kingston Flash Voyager (USB 2.0; 8 GB; FAT32). BTW, just for the heck of it, I verified that it boots on my spare (and even older) Thinkpad X60 -- though it doesn't proceed when it sees that the X60 has a 32-bit microprocessor.
The relevant BIOS values and settings are as follows:
UEFI BIOS Version G2ET95WW (2.55)
UEFI BIOS Date 2013-July-09
UEFI Secure Boot Off
[URL] ....
I am posting this query after trying a number of solutions : rebooting from a USB flash drive on my Thinkpad X230. For some reason, nothing has worked and pressing F12 only shows the ATA HDD0 hard drive. Among other things, I have tried the following:
- Updated the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller driver using Lenovo's Thinkvantage Tools. Now it has version 1.0.9.254. Someone suggested to have at least 1.4.0.225 which is apparently available at Intel's website. I always considered downloading the device drivers from Lenovo to be kosher. Shall I download it from Intel's website?
- Disabled USB 3.0 from BIOS which made all USB ports to act as USB 2.0. Neither option works.
- Tried booting from all three USB ports (of which one is USB 2.0 and two are USB 3.0). Zilch.
- Have yet to try "reset BIOS to default" suggestion as it looked a bit of a last resort.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Mar 1, 2014
I recently acquired a new Thinkpad W530 with Windows 7 Pro.
I want to immediately replace the 500gb main drive with a larger one. I plan to do this by imaging the system partition of the current drive to an external USB hdd, and then then writing the image to the larger one after it's installed in the W530.
My question: Can I then just store the original drive away as is, to use for recovery (should the need arise), in lieu of creating recovery media now?
It seems pretty clear the answer should be "yes," but since I've always used XP up until now I'm wondering if there are any kinds of Win 7-specific watchouts (maybe licensing-rleated?) that would keep things from being as simple as popping the original drive back in the main hdd slot to get things back to exactly where they are today?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jan 25, 2015
I have made a Recovery disk on a USB Flash Drive using the Lenovo “create a recovery disk” in the Lenovo Solution Centre software.
The USB Drive seems to have been created successfully. It shows in Windows Disk Management as cbd_drive (D 14.48GB NTFS Healthy (Active, Primary Partition).
When I interrupt the boot with F12, The USB Drive comes up as an option (USB HDD: Sandisk Ultra), but when this option is selected, the screen flashes briefly, then returns back to the boot options again, so the USB drive will not boot properly – the boot fails and reverts back to the boot options screen.
The root directory of the USB contains the following -
BOOT (Folder)
FactoryRecovery (Folder)
usb.tag
winRE.wim
I have read other threads on here, and think I have covered the issues raised there. This is the first time I have used a USB flash drive as a recovery disk, so I may be missing something very basic.
Is something wrong with the USB drive
View 8 Replies
View Related
Jan 18, 2014
I just got a brand new thinkpad X240, with 500G HD, Win8. I installed a Win7 on this new SSD, then replaced original 500G HD in X240 with this new SSD. However, after I replaced, computer cannot boot , it got stuck with BOOT MENU section, no matter you choose any options..In the Boot Menu, I saw boot devices: one is my new SSD. I click it, it does not work. I tried several times. (PC can recognize my SSD, just dont know why it cannot read it.)
I am sure this SSD is working, since I tested on different computers, they can boot successfully.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jan 27, 2014
is there any possibility to make boot from SD Card on Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga?
I have live linux image, but there are no optical drive on system, so I would be glad to use the SD Card slot. When start with boot selection, there no SD Card slot listed even if I have the bootable SD Card inserted into. On other system the same card booting properly.
Are there some bois settings to allow booting from SD Card slot, so it will be included in boot device list? The same system boot from USB, but USB consume one USB port, so the SD Card is more preferable option.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jan 31, 2011
I just received a new W540 and I am unable to boot from CD/DVD. Any attempts result in a BSOD indicating the BIOS is not APCI compatible
Link to picture
There is no UEFI/BIOS options to set the 'SATA Controller Mode' accordingly, nor does the [F7] text mode option work.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Oct 8, 2014
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad R61li 15.4" screen laptop. It's important that I keep this computer in service with the Win XP Pro Sp 3 because I have two vital programs which will not install on Win 8.
This computer has never had a "A: Floppy dirve" and only a CD drive but the installation options for making a Boot Disk/ Start-up Disk only consider a Floppy drive and not a CD drive. I need to make a Boot/Start-up disk on a CD so that if I get locked out of my computer AGAIN, I can boot back into Windows and then either fix the problems or restore from my current backups.
I have two new sets of Rescue Disks but they don't boot into the current OS so that I can access my backups. And if I can't access Safe Mode or do a repair, I'm stuck with the problem of having to reinstall an old version of XP, which is then not compatible with my backups because the backups have new Windows files from all the upgrades.
How can I make a Boot Disk/Start-up Disk like we used to use in the "old days" to start the initial system files and boot into Windows so that I can either make repairs to restore from my backups using current Winows files?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Nov 7, 2014
I purchased a Edge E545 that came pre loaded with Win7 Pro 64. I created the Recovery disks for Win7 and used the Win 8 Disks to upgrade the OS. I have created a new NTFS partition on my hard drive and would like to install Win 7 to that partition. I have tried to load the recovery disks to install into that partition but I have not been successful; the boot disk won't even load. I downloaded the Win7 Pro 64 ISO to try and load it into that partition but the computer does not have the COA sticker under the battery like it's supposed to.
I have recovery disks that won't load at restart or cold boot and I have a perfectly good ISO that i don't have a COA to.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Feb 28, 2012
how to set BIOS for SL400 booting from USB flash drive, I'd like to install Windows 7 installer from USB flash drive 4 GB.
View 6 Replies
View Related
Oct 8, 2014
I have a T440s lenovo laptop whose motherboard was replaced a few months ago.
Today I wanted to make a clean installation (windows 8) using the recover USB key I created before the motherboard replacement (note that I already used it and it was working before changing the board).
It goes through the different steps, deleting files and creating the partitions, but when it is done the computer is not able to boot on the hardrive. I have the following messages :
Intel (R) Boot agent Ge v1.5.43 copyring (C) 1997-2013 , Intel corporation
............. initializing and establishing link...
PXE-E61 - Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F - Exiting intel boot agent
(so looks like it is trying to boot on the pci lan)
Then it comes back to the boot menu where I have a choice between :
ATA HDD0
PCI LAN
If I select the first one nothing happens, and the the PCI LAN gives the above error message.
I tried to reset the bios parameters to default but it did not work. So I am wondering if it has something to do with some change in the motherboard ID, bios version....
I also launched the lenovo quick storage device test to check the hard drive and all was ok. I had to change a bios option to UEFI (the new motherboard was set by default to Legacy, messing up all the recovery process)
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 2, 2013
I recently ordered a new Carbon X1 20A7 for a VP here and noticed that it, as well as all the other sets we receive for the T430's, W530, etc all contain 4 things - 3 discs and a small pamphlet. The Pamphlet explains that the discs should be labeled 1 2 3 and all (Ive checked an order of 100 T430s and the first 17 boxes are all wrong) contain 2 x #1 and a #2 - I have looked in the old lab and found older shipments that all contain similar 1 1 2 instead of 1 2 3 .
View 2 Replies
View Related
Aug 2, 2014
I just got my X1 back from lenovo after a full factory recovery (they had to replace my system board). As you can see, I have the new X1, and yet Dragon is missing (it is factory pre-load at this stage, all the lenovo preloaded apps included except for Dragon).
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 19, 2014
On my X1 Carbon, I had to move from Win 8.1 pro to 8.1 Ent. I did a fresh install from scratch to only install what I need.During my setup, I had to disable Secure boot, to boot on a USB Key, install 8.1 Enterprise. Now that everything is working, I would like to re-enable the secure boot option.
If I don't it directly in the BIOS, the laptop doesn't book any more.Do I have to import key from my 8.1 Ent to the Bios or something like this?
View 7 Replies
View Related
Mar 29, 2014
I just got a new Lenovo W540. I installed a new Samsung EVO SSD inside to replace the stock mechanical hard drive. I'm now trying to boot from a flash drive to clean install Windows. I've done this so many times before on other laptops and desktops without a problem. For some reason now it will not boot from the flash drive. It shows it as available in the BIOS but it looks like it reads it for just a second and then goes right back to the screen that allows me to choose which drive I want to put to.The same flash drive works fine in other computers to boot to.I did check to make sure the USB drive was not excluded in the BIOS and it is not.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Feb 24, 2010
Is it possible? I have successfully booted from a USB Thumbdrive. When I put the same image onto an SD Card & boot up, the SD Card does not appear and the bootable devices list.
View 8 Replies
View Related
Jun 8, 2010
I am trying to use the Lenovo Diagnostics Bootable USB. I have to get my BIOS to boot from the USB before my SSD.
In the BIOS, the Startup > Boot menu already looks like the USB is listed first. But when I do a hard boot, Windows still boots from my SSD.
Here is the startup order listed in the BIOS:
1: USB FDD:
2: ATAPI CD0: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T50N-(TS)
3: USB CD:
4: ATA HDD0: SAMSUNG MMCQE28G8MUP-OVA-(S1)
5: +USB HDD
6: ATA HDD1:
See, the USB is listed first.
Why doesn't my system boot to the USB? What do those symbols in the boot order mean? For example, why are there three USBs?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Jan 29, 2014
I've recently got an ultrabay adapter and wanted to know if I could run two separate OSs, one from each hard disc.
Effectively, I would like to have one version of windows on the internal HDD for general day to day stuff and one as a programming environment and be able to select which to boot from at start up.
I know I could just use a VM, but some of this stuff (Siemens PCS7) can put quite a strain on the system and I'd rather not have that overhead.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Nov 16, 2014
I am trying to disable UEFI Secure Boot on my Thinkpad Yoga S1 but it keeps getting re-enabled after a reboot. If I set secure boot to disabled I can boot into the non secure OSes installed on the machine imediately afterwards but if the machine is restarted the Secure Boot seting in the BIOS is re-enabled. It's important for me to have secure boot disabled as I use OSes without secure boot.
I try to disable Secure Boot in the BIOS on the following screen :
Link to image 1
But if I re-enter the BIOS either after booting into an OS or simply re-entering the BIOS, Secure Boot is back on:
Link to image 2
I have also tried to disable "OS Optimzed Defaults" but it also returns to enabled after a restart.
Link to image 3
Some of the other BIOS settings save correctly so I can't figure out why the secure boot settings don't. The BIOS version I have is the latest (1.18).
It's inconvenient to manually disable secure boot each time I want to use the laptop. The two operating systems (Ubuntu and Android x86) do work reasonably well once booted.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Feb 10, 2013
My R400 laptop (7447-W14) suddenly freezes on boot: it displays the early logo ("thinkpad, to interrupt normal startup, press the blue Thinkvantage button"), and waits forever, neither the bios menu nor the operating system (windows and ubuntu in dual boot) appears.
I can shutdown by holding the power button more than 5s, but on reboot, the same freeze come back, whatever I do:
- holding the F1 key before and after powering on
- holding the "ThinkVantage" button
- doing this on battery, or with power supply (with or without battery)
- trying to boot on an external USB HD drive
It does not seem to be a CPU problem (nothing would be displayed), nor RAM or harddisk one (it is cheked later, at BIOS time).
In fact, I was wondering wether removing and putting back the small battery of the mainboard would solve this problem ... but this battery seems not to be eaysyly found. At least, it is not under the keyboard, where the RAM is.
of course, warranty has ended ... any way, before I throw this laptop to trash ?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Oct 30, 2014
I got my W540 recently with windows 8.1 pro on it. but as all engineers worst nightmare windows 8 has hard time with engineering softwares (for my case TIA Portal for PLC programming software which only support windows 7). so i need to have a windows 7. i prefer to keep my windows 8 and have dual boot system with windows 7 added. But i can't install windows 7. initially due to disk type (GPT), then i changed it to MBR without losing my files (which only was possible if i had deleted the recovery partition- now my recovery is on my flash drive). But there are already 4 partitions on the system (1 for C: drive and 3 for recovery and system files which came originally with the product) , how can i install a windows 7? i can't add another partition because that makes my disk a Dynamic disk. i really need windows 7 on my system ASAP.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Aug 23, 2013
I'm trying to accomplish the recovery of my ultrabook (s400u) from the three disks provided by Lenovo and am having trouble finding it in the process does not create the boot image in HD SSD. Recovery only creates the boot image on SATA HD.
How to perform the Recovery HD correct (in case the SSD - 32 GB).
OS: Windows 8
Ultrabook: IdeaPad S400u
View 2 Replies
View Related
Sep 28, 2013
I have purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad T430. This laptop came with pre-installed Windows 7 Pro. However I want to use Windows 8 which I have a recovery disc for.
I built in a SSD instead of the optical drive. So I don´t have a optical drive. On this SSD I want to run my OS.
With a software from Samsung (manufacturer of my SSD) I was able to copy the Windows7 OS on my SSD.
As I mentioned above I bought a laptop with installed windows 7 pro and a Windows 8 upgrade disc. Therefore I got the "Operating System Recovery Dis Windows 8 Pro. (OEM Activation 3.0 Required)".
The problem now is that I have an upgrade disc but no optical drive. So I created an image of the upgrade disc and with this image I have created a bootable USB stick with the following program:
[URL] ....
When I boot my laptop using the bootable USB stick everything seems to be working until to the point where I have to accept the EULA.
So I chose a language, and clicked on "I accept the agreements".
When I want to click on "next" I got a error message "recovery failed".
Please have a look on the following picture taken with my smartphone. The language used in this picture is german as i live in Austria.
Link to image
How I can upgrade to Windows 8? Why the upgrade disc is not working?
View 8 Replies
View Related
Jan 6, 2013
After upgrading to Win 8.1 and trying to create the usb recovery drive, I get this error:"We can't create a reccovery drive on this PC. Some required files are missing.To trouble shoot problems when your PC starts,use your window installation disk or media".
View 2 Replies
View Related
Apr 23, 2014
Today I received my new worklaptop, a W540 with Windows 8 installed.
The first think I wanted to do was to create recovery media (I'm going to re-install on a SSD). However, trying to run the Windows 8 "Create recovery media" tool, as sugested by Lenovo, results in the following:
The option "Copy the recovery partition ..." is grayed out, and I can not select it. Pressing Next results in the following:
View 8 Replies
View Related
